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On call with Dr. Bovine:
Clowning around helps young
patients cope with cancer
Bette Weinstein Kaplan
W
hen you are a sick child lying
in a hospital bed, constantly
getting poked and punctured
or being wheeled away for procedures
that are uncomfortable or downright
painful, the last person you would want
to see coming toward you is one more
white-coated doctor. That is, unless
that doctor is Dr. Bovine.
Dr. Bovine describes himself as “a
benevolent, almost plodding, always
hungry, not so smart, pretty patient
goofball with a porkpie hat, a short lab
coat, and round glasses.” He says the
bovine identity was especially appealing to him because “cows give every
part of themselves for something.” This
extremely giving person is actually the
clown, Glen Heroy, and his persona as
Dr. Bovine for the Big Apple Circus
Clown Care program made a huge difference in the lives of many patients
at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center in New York City. A clown can
provide palliative care like no one else.
CLOWN COMMUNITY OUTREACH
The Big Apple Circus Clown Care
program employs specially trained
professional performers to be clown
doctors. Working in teams of two,
they go to children’s hospitals or the
pediatric units of large medical centers several times a week for about 5
hours a day. According to Heroy, who
was also supervisor of the Clown Care
unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the
performers are specially trained in all
hospital hygiene protocols and familiar with all forms of medical clearances; they are even compliant with
the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Considered the innovator of this art
form, the Big Apple Circus Clown Care
program has inspired many other similar
programs throughout the country since
its inception in 1986. This type of activity
is nothing new for clowns and other performers, Heroy says, since they have been
entertaining in hospitals “for eons.”
BUT A CLOWN DOCTOR?
How does someone become a Big Apple
Circus clown doctor? Heroy explained:
“While I was Santa Claus at Macy’s in
New York’s Herald Square, I did some
outreach appearances for disabled children and found that I had a very strong
connection with many of them. This
inspired me to try and find a job where
I could perform, get a paycheck, and
do some good for children [who] were

not in the best circumstances. I chose
to work at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center because the children
there were facing such a tough battle.
Also, the long-term inpatient aspect of
the facility made me come up with new
material and kept my skills sharp.”
When asked what skills are needed to
do what he did, he said, “You start with
patience, resilience, the ability to listen,
the ability to check your ego at the door,
and an open heart. Then add music,
magic, storytelling, juggling, tap dancing,
jokes, singing, bubble blowing, puppets,
origami, comic timing, trivia, impersonations, riddles, Abbott and Costello
routines, etc. You name it.” He said an
oncology nurse or other practitioner can
learn and practice those skills, too. “It’s
beautiful to see a nurse or doctor sing or
play along when we get goofy.”
CLOWN ON CALL
Although he was usually found in the
pediatric unit, Heroy worked with
patients ranging in age from newborns
to adults. He learned that at Memorial
SEE THE ONLINE VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE TO LINK TO:
Glen Heroy www.glenheroy.com
Big Apple Circus Clown Care www.bigapplecircus.org
PBS series Circus www.pbs.org/opb/circus
Circus Physics: Newton’s Laws of Motion
www.pbs.org/opb/circus/classroom/circus-physics/newtons-laws
www.OncologyNurseAdvisor.com • MARCH/APRIL 2011 • oncology nurse advisor 37
the total patient
Sloan-Kettering if a patient is diagnosed
as a child, that patient always returns
to the pediatric floor for treatment. Of
course he assisted the staff with patients of
any age, and he was always in demand.
“I’ve distracted and entertained kids
during all sorts of injections and finger
sticks. I’ve had children race me, hit me,
and arm wrestle me, all in the name of
physical therapy. And I always tried to be
with a child who was having a particularly bad day. I remember an 11-year-old
boy (whom I had known since he was
7 [years old]) who got hysterical when
he was brought into the pediatric ICU.
He demanded, ‘I WANT TO SEE DR.
BOVINE!’ and I was paged. A new
nurse later inquired, ‘Who is Dr. Bovine,
a psych counselor?’ The charge nurse
said, ‘No. He’s the clown.’ ”
There were many requests for Dr.
Bovine to see specific patients. He
made birthday visits. He visited adults
in other parts of the hospital. He was
all over the place. “I used to love being
present when a child came out of anesthesia or being there to escort a kid to
radiation or to push their wheelchairs
when patients were leaving to go home.
(I’d also get in the car with them and
demand they take me home with them
and give me cookies!)”
Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns, and
over the years Dr. Bovine has encountered a few cases of it in children and
adults. Heroy’s solution was to design
and print a “No Clowns Today Please”
sign, which had a picture of Dr. Bovine
in a red circle with a red bar across his
face. He explained that his plan backfired because the sign had a picture of
a clown on it.
HELPING STAFF
AS WELL AS PATIENTS
Dr. Bovine said he tried to “weave [himself] into the fabric of the community.”
He was primarily there for the children,
but he also tried to include all those
around him in his antics. Not everyone
was receptive to his colleagues and him,
though. He noted that there are always
people, including medical and administrative staff, who think that having
clowns walking around a medical facility
is inappropriate. However, he added,
“Often their opinions are turned around
when they hear children laughing.”
DID HE MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
When asked if he made a difference in
patient care or outcome, Heroy said,
“I made children forget they were sick
for 5 minutes. I didn’t cure any diseases. Although Farid Boulad, MD,
medical director of the Pediatric Day
Hospital at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, told us (in regard to the
clowns), that patients heal faster when
they are in a better mood.”
Dr. Bovine stayed at Memorial SloanKettering for 8 years, entertaining as
well as supervising the Clown Care unit
there. He also spent six seasons as a Big
Apple Circus Clown-in-Residence at
Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang
Camp. He took his commitment to
the children very seriously and often
would visit them at home, meet them
and their families at the carousel or
the zoo, or join them on a Ronald
McDonald House excursion to Disney
World. He made time to go to every
fund-raiser, every talent show, and
every pediatric prom because he had an
Tell us what you think!
“all-or-nothing mind-set.” He said he
had a strong connection to the children,
which, combined with the mortality
rate over 8 years, “is an intense equation.” It was time to move on.
PROVOKE A SMILE
When Heroy left the cancer center, he
became a featured clown in the touring
production of the Big Apple Circus.
He starred in the PBS series Circus and
taught a lesson in physics using the
hilarious Big Apple Circus dog act as
part of an educational supplement to
that series. He said he is “astonished”
that the children and their families
stay in touch with him. He even has a
number of Facebook friends who were
patients when he was at the cancer
center and who are now “all grown up
and healthy and beautiful. That kind
of makes it all worth it.”
Does Dr. Bovine have advice for
oncology professionals? “Try keeping a sponge ball clown nose in your
pocket (see Sources for inexpensive
clown noses). You never know when
the unexpected provoking of a smile
might come in handy.” n
Bette Kaplan is a medical writer based in
Tenafly, New Jersey.
Sources for
inexpensive clown
noses
www.windycitynovelties.com
www.justclownnoses.com
www.orientaltrading.com
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38 oncology nurse advisor • MARCH/APRIL 2011 • www.OncologyNurseAdvisor.com